our homestead: raised beds filled and gojis planted

My husband shoveling compost out of the truck

My husband and I planted our goji berries today. On Saturday, my husband built two raised bed frames out of pine boards for them, so all we had left to do to get the berries planted was to fill the frames with soil and compost. After breakfast, my husband and I set out in our truck to a family farm in our area that runs a compost business. When we arrived at the farm we were surrounded by steaming mountains of black compost. A worker came over to us and we told him to fill up the truck bed. He hopped in his construction loader, scooped up a big pile of compost and dropped it in the bed. We watched our truck suspension at work as the truck instantly dropped six inches down as it was filled with compost. We also saw the beauty of our V8 engine as we hauled the load on home.

Once we were back in the yard, my husband and I set about filling the beds. He shoveled compost into our wheelbarrow and then I would push the loads down to the bed frames (we put them near the bottom of our yard where they'll receive the most sunlight). It wasn't too hard to roll the compost down the hill as the weight of the wheel barrow and the tilt of the hill made for some nice momentum. Banjo also enjoying frolicking beside me as if he was racing me. Anyway, we ended up with some extra compost, so I spread some in the greenhouse and underneath the hardy kiwis and the honeyberries. 

Once the raised beds were filled, I dug three deep holes in them; two in one bed and one in the second. We're anticipating the arrival of three more goji plants in April from a different nursery, so we'll have to build another bed. Our plan is to plant two gojis per bed. I loosened the soil at the bottom of each hole and added lime (to raise the pH of the soil as gojis prefer alkalinity). The lime smelled very sweet...almost like  Lucky Charms cereal as weird as that sounds.  I then tossed in a few handfuls of compost, followed by soil and more compost and planted the gojis. I was starting to get a bit tired at this point, so I made a quick bamboo  pole and bird-netting fortress for the double goji bed and just tossed the extra bird netting on the single goji bed. I'm not going to lie...I did not enjoy working with bird netting. I seem to have a knack for tangling it. Hopefully it will keep the deer away from my vulnerable goji plants as they spend their first night in their new  home. I plan to build a more functionable enclosure for the gojis soon. I'm happy we were able to get them in the ground before they break their dormancy and I'm looking forward to seeing how they grow this spring.  Now I'm off to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea with honey and read about soil microbes with my sleepy pups at my side. Aww, the life! 

our homestead: welcoming spring with a potato (and pea) planting

Spring! Spring! Oh my darling, you've come back to me! In celebration of the growing season, I've spent the day digging around one of my garden patches, planting out potatoes and sugar snap peas. To prepare this year's potato patch, I was sure to clear out any pesky weeds and dig up any large stones, then I put down heaps of rich compost (potatoes love some fertile soil) and "green manure", also known as alfalfa grass, grown by a local farm. I selected three organic seed potato varieties: 1) french fingerlings (a buttery, gourmet finger-shaped tuber with a golden flesh and blush, papery skin), 2) all blue potatoes (it's safe to say that this one's my favorite- blue in hue, slightly sweet, and oh boy! it makes the best mashed potatoes with peas), and 3) classic red nordland roasters (bring on the rosemary!). I dug three long trenches about 3-4 inches deep, about 2 feet apart, and dropped a potato every 12 inches down each row before covering them up with a blanket of soil.

When their first starts emerge from the earth, I'll begin drawing up the soil around their stalks as they grow. This is known as "hilling"...essentially as your potato plant grows you build a mound around it on either side, ensuring its developing tubers aren't exposed to any sunlight as sunlight causes them to turn green. Eventually the potato plants will grow bushy (they almost look like determinate tomato plants), flower, and then they will start to turn brown. A midsummer dying potato plant marks the kickoff for potato harvesting (of course you can always dig around before this point...usually when the flowers appear...and steal a potato or two). To harvest, whole plants can be pulled up, attached tubers and all, and digging around the plant's surrounding hill will reveal even more new potatoes.

So why did I plant sugar snap peas by my potatoes? Other than the fact that a fresh sugar snap tastes like vegetable candy, peas, another cool-weather crop, are kindred spirits with developing potatoes. Peas, like all legumes, are "nitrogen fixing", meaning they'll grab a hold of nitrogen in the air and enrich their surrounding soil. Nitrogen is essential for healthy green development (leaves, stalks and shoots), and potatoes are heavy Nitrogen feeders. Want to strengthen your soil for some summer corn or tomatoes? Plant some good ol' peas now!